Summer vacation
by Leto
Summary: The digidestined decide to take a day off from fighting...


Summer vacation  
by Leto (leto@nysa.cx)  
  
---  
  
"Oh look, it's raining, too bad," said Mimi cheerfully, "it looks like we'll have to stay in this cave for today and not do any hiking around!"  
  
"We can't waste a whole day," argued Tai, "come on, a little rain won't do us any harm."  
  
"It's not a *little* rain, Tai," said Matt, never shy at arguing with the other boy, "more of a downpour, really."  
  
"It's not like we have anywhere to go, anyway," said Sora practically, "we've just been wandering around lost for ages." She wasn't usually in favour of lazing around but they had been hiking every day for the last week and she certainly didn't like the look of the rain.  
  
"The rain makes my glasses fog up," contributed Joe, "and it's dangerous to walk around in wet socks for too long. Your feet become soft and vulnerable and start developing this horrible -"  
  
"Yeah, alright," interrupted Tai, "we don't wanna hear it. I can't believe you guys! Don't you have any sense of adventure at all?"  
  
"Yeah, when the sun is shining," said Matt.  
  
"It's imperitive that my computer equipment remain dry," said Izzy, "so I recommend we stay here too. We could all use the break."  
  
"Fine, fine," sulked Tai. "If none of you will come, I'll go out on my own! Come on, Agumon!"  
  
Agumon didn't look thrilled at this invitation but obediently got up and waddled after Tai.  
  
"Bye guys!" called Tai, "a little rain doesn't scare me! I won't be back for hours, after I've helped save this world all on my own!"  
  
Sora folded her arms and smirked as he disappeared from the cave. For a moment there was no sound but the loud pouring rain. Then loud footsteps and Tai barrelled back in, completely drenched and shivering.  
  
"Well, ehehhh," he said, "maybe it IS a little wet... but I didn't make that decision! I mean, Agumon's fire attacks won't work too well in this weather, right!"  
  
"Of course, Tai," agreed Sora, still with a smirk. He stuck his tongue out at her.  
  
"If we're spending today doing nothing, I'm going back to sleep," said Matt.  
  
"C'mon man, that's boring," said Tai, "why don't you -"  
  
Matt's disconcerting response to this was to move away from the others, further back into the cave, and flop down on the ground near his brother who was still asleep. The noise woke TK and he bounced up, being quite a morning person.  
  
"Oh boy!" said TK enthusiastically, "another day! What're we doing today, huh?"  
  
"Nothing," said Joe glumly, resting with one head on his bag and his feet up against the rocky cave wall. He didn't want to be out in the rain, but nor did he want to spend the whole day in a gloomy, claustrophobic cave with 13 other people and Digimon.  
  
"Come on, let's play a game," suggested Tai.  
  
"What did you have in mind? We don't have anything to play WITH," said Sora, "and we're a bit old for make-believe. Well, most of us..."  
  
"We don't need anything!" said Tai, "come on, I know a really fun game!"  
  
-ten minutes later-  
  
"Rock scissors paper is NOT a really fun game," said Mimi irritably.  
  
"Aww, you're just saying that 'cos you're losing!" said Tai.  
  
"Well, at least *I* don't keep doing that STUPID "hahaha, I beat you, look, scissors beat paper" thing where you try to cut my hand with your fingers, Tai!"  
  
"Hey come on Mimi, that just adds a dimension of reality to the game!"  
  
"Actually, I think it just makes you a sad and pathetic person," muttered Izzy, who had rejected the game in favour of his computer. Joe, who had also disdained to play, snickered. A rather obvious snore had been coming from Matt's corner all through the game.  
  
"What I think is sad and pathetic is how they're actually keeping a tally of victories and losses on the cave wall," said Joe.  
  
"We're having a tournament!" snapped Tai, "we have to keep track somehow!"  
  
"Tai, how does paper beat rock?" asked Agumon.  
  
"Yeah, I don't get it," said Biyomon, "what could a piece of paper do against a rock?"  
  
"It could contain an offensive drawing of the rock, thus hurting its feelings so badly that it has a nervous breakdown."  
  
Everyone stared at Joe. "What?"  
  
"Joe, you're weird," said Sora.  
  
"Come on guys, let's keep playing!" said TK.  
  
Tai nodded eagerly, everyone else groaned.  
  
"I think we've had enough," said Sora.  
  
"Yeah," agreed Patamon, "no fair playing a game that you need fingers for!"  
  
"I wanted to play!" agreed Gomamon.  
  
"Sometimes I think there's no hope for you at all, Gomamon," said Joe.  
  
"Now let's play Snap!" said TK.  
  
"But we don't have any cards, TK," said Sora.  
  
"Sure we do! Patamon, could you go get my backpack?"  
  
"Why me? You have arms, TK."  
  
"Yeah, but you're already up."  
  
Patamon - who was 'up' in the sense that he was hovering in the air - sweatdropped and decided it wasn't worth arguing, so the little Digimon picked up TK's backpack with his arms and legs, tugging it with some difficulty through the air and dropping it on the ground in front of TK.  
  
"There!"  
  
"Thanks, Patamon!" said TK happily and started rifling through his bag.  
  
"Just what do you have in that backpack of yours, TK?" asked Joe, leaning forward to see. TK obligingly dumped the whole contents of the bag onto the ground. Everyone gathered around curiously.  
  
"TK, why do you have a rock in your bag?"  
  
"That's a lucky rock I found in that lake we were at two days ago!"  
  
"And what are all these dead flowers?"  
  
"They looked nice when I picked them..."  
  
"Cookie crumbs, snack wrappers, coins... oh gross, what IS that?"  
  
"It's a bird, of course. I found it on the ground and I took it with me so I could try to bring it back to life."  
  
Everyone sweatdropped, with looks of disgust.  
  
"I was WONDERING what that icky smell was for the last few days," said Mimi, "I thought it was Joe."  
  
"Hey!" said Joe.  
  
"The poor thing," said Biyomon tenderly, touching it gently with one clawed wing. The feathers instantly collapsed, caving into its body. She squawked in alarm and leapt backwards.  
  
"That is so totally disgusting," said Mimi, "get rid of that thing! It's not gonna come back to life!"  
  
"Really?" asked TK, looking wounded.  
  
"Sorry, TK," said Tai, more gently, "it just doesn't always work like that. Here, I'll throw it outside."  
  
He scooped up the mangled bird carcass, ran to the mouth of the cave and then put it gently on the ground. He then took a running start and did his best soccer kick. Feathers fell everywhere as the skeleton flew through the air.  
  
"Ewww, gross Tai," shrieked Mimi, "how could you touch that horrible thing?!"  
  
"He IS wearing gloves, Mimi," said Sora calmly.  
  
Tai walked back to them with an evil grin on his face. "Oh, Mimi!" he said, "suddenly I'm overwhelmed with feelings of love for you!"  
  
Everyone stared at Tai in shock. His shoulders shook with barely concealed mirth.  
  
"I just... just can't keep my hands off you!"  
  
He suddenly lunged at her and she started screaming and backing away as he tried to grab her arm with the hand he'd used to hold the dead bird.  
  
While scooting back on her butt, hitting out blindly at Tai while trying not to touch him (interesting...), she wasn't watching where she was going and fell over Matt, landing on Gabumon and coming to an abrupt halt, which Tai wasn't prepared for. The four of them ended up in a painful sort of 'snowball', barelling over and over the cave floor and hitting the wall at the end. They hit it fairly hard, and debris and dust flew off the wall and ceiling, landing on them.  
  
There was a long pause, and the spectators, trying not to laugh, watched the little dusty pile of three humans and one Digimon, with some trepidation. Matt distangled himself from the pile and stood up, very slowly and deliberately brushing off his arms and shirt. Still everything was silence. Then this unnatural stillness was broken.  
  
"TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAI!!!!"  
  
Tai coughed and crawled out from under Gabumon. As soon as he got up, Matt lunged at his throat.  
  
"I was trying to sleep there!"  
  
"Hey, it was Mimi who jumped on you!"  
  
Matt looked at her suspiciously. "Mimi, I know I'm irresistable and all, but could you try not to jump me when I'm trying to get some shut-eye?"  
  
"I did NOT jump on you, you stupid blockhead!" shouted Mimi, "I was trying to run away from STUPID Tai and his icky hands and - ohhh! There's dirt ALL OVER my dress! TAAAAAAAAAAAAI!"  
  
Mimi joined Matt in lunging at Tai's throat and soon all three of them were tumbling on the floor in a heated wrestling match. The others stared, and blinked.  
  
"Is that MIMI *wrestling*?" asked Sora, with some disbelief.  
  
"We need popcorn," commented Izzy, for once ignoring his computer to stare with great interest at the scuffling, cursing trio.  
  
"We sure do," agreed Tentomon, "uh... what is popcorn, Izzy?"  
  
Tai crawled out of the fray, looking thoroughly dishevelled.  
  
"Ugggh," he groaned, "I've had my fill of adventure for the day... can we play cards now?"  
  
"Sure, I just found them," said TK brightly.  
  
Mimi and Matt grinned at each other triumphantly, having gotten the upper hand(s), and Matt lay down again, intending to sleep some more. Mimi looked down at herself in dismay.  
  
"Oh, I must look a total wreck," she said irritably.  
  
"You sure do," agreed Joe amiably. She took off her hat and started hitting him with it.  
  
"Ow! - Mimi, stop - ow! That's not - hey!"  
  
She stomped past him in a huff. "I'm going outside to take a shower. Coming, Palmon?"  
  
"What do you need me for?" asked Palmon curiously.  
  
"You make sure all these disgusting boys don't try to peek!"  
  
Everyone facefaulted, and the two made their exit. Joe took up the cards and started  
shuffling.  
  
"You don't shuffle like that, Joe," said Tai, "here, I'll show you the best way to do it."  
  
He tried to take the cards from him. Joe hesitated and then stopped shuffling.  
  
"Hey, we don't even need to shuffle," he said, "Tai, do you want to play 52-card pickup?"  
  
"What's that?" asked Tai suspiciously.  
  
"A card game. It's even more fun than rock-scissors-paper (if you can imagine such a thing)."  
  
"Really? Sure!" said Tai, enthusiastic, "let's play 52-card pickup!"  
  
Sora and Izzy both snickered. Joe threw all the cards in the air and they scattered all over the ground.  
  
"Pick up," ordered Joe, pointing at the cards.  
  
Tai looked from the cards to Joe, confused. "Hey man, you threw them, you pick 'em up!"  
  
"You agreed to play," said Joe, "that's how you play 52-card pickup. You pick up the 52 cards."  
  
The others all laughed.  
  
"Oh, REAL funny," muttered Tai, in a voice that meant he didn't get it.  
  
Tai grumpily retrieved all the cards.  
  
"See, now they're shuffled," said Sora, "good method, Joe."  
  
"Yeah, well, someone else can play next time," muttered Tai, "now what are we playing?"  
  
"I know a game," volunteered Joe - rather to everyone's surprise. "It's not too difficult, I'll teach you. It's called Warlords and Scumbags."  
  
"Warlordmons and Scumbagmons," corrected Gomamon. Joe rolled his eyes.  
  
"Do you need hands to play?" asked Tentomon, waving his claws.  
  
"The only hand you need is the hand you're dealt."  
  
There was a moment of silence. Joe sighed and slapped one hand to his forehead. "Nobody gets my jokes."  
  
"We got it," said Sora, "we just didn't think it was funny."  
  
"Speak for yourself," said Gomamon, "I didn't get it at all. But if Joe was making a joke - hahahahahahahahahahahahaaa!"  
  
Joe looked decidedly unimpressed at Gomamon's weak attempt at convincing him he had enjoyed his joke, and changed the subject.  
  
"Who's in?" he asked, firmly taking the cards from Tai's hand.  
  
"I'll play," said Tentomon and Gomamon eagerly.  
  
"I don't want to be a scumbag," said Biyomon uncertainly.  
  
"Why don't you play with me?" suggested Sora, "that way you can see my cards and help me but we'll work as a team."  
  
"Ooh, I like that idea!"  
  
"We can do that too, TK!" said Patamon enthusiastically, and TK nodded happily.  
  
Joe and Gomamon glanced at each other suspiciously.  
  
"No offense Joe but you have the worst luck of anyone so I don't want to go with you," said Gomamon.  
  
"No offense Gomamon but you're likely to steal all the cards and talk too loudly and tell everyone what we've got," said Joe.  
  
"I wanna win all on my own," said Tai, and Agumon pouted.  
  
"I'll sit this one out," said Agumon, "maybe I'll go back to sleep."  
  
Tai poked him. "You're so lazy. No wonder you're getting fat."  
  
"Hey, I am not!"  
  
Agumon crawled away and went and flopped down over Gabumon's back. The other Digimon was half-asleep and grunted, but didn't mind Agumon using him as a mattress.  
  
Tentomon glanced at Izzy, who was looking undecided. "Izzy, are you playing?" he asked.  
  
"I suppose so," said Izzy.  
  
"Then do you mind if we both go it alone too?" asked Tentomon. He had a mental picture of Izzy doing complicated calculations to determine the chance of winning with each card, which would sap all the fun out of the game.  
  
Izzy nodded vacantly. "No problem."  
  
Joe dealt, deftly, explaining the rules as he went. "Okay, the aim of the game is to be the first person -"  
  
"-or Digimon-" volunteered Gomamon cheerfully. Joe glared, and continued.  
  
"-the aim is to be the first creature to get rid of all your cards."  
  
Gomamon promptly threw his cards over his shoulder.  
  
"Mine are gone!" he said happily, "I win!"  
  
Joe sighed heavily. "Guys, please let me finish?! You get rid of your cards by playing them."  
  
"I didn't know a card was a musical instrument, Joe," said Gomamon, "how do you play a -"  
  
Gomamon was interrupted by Joe's foot in his mouth. Joe kept it there while he continued explaining.  
  
"What we do is go around the circle, putting cards down when it's our turn. You can only put down a card that is *higher* than that of the person - or Digimon - who went before you. In this game, a three is the lowest card, and a two is the highest. So the highest cards are, in order, ten, jack, queen, king, ace, two. And then there are the jokers, which are wild cards, which means they can work as any number you want,  
because if you have more than one of a card, you can put down doubles or triples or whatever."  
  
Joe finished dealing, and looked up at the others. Most of them looked rather blank.  
  
"Uh, any questions?" he asked.  
  
There was a pause, and Biyomon ventured, "why is two the highest card? That doesn't sound like it makes much sense!"  
  
"I'm confused," agreed Patamon, "I thought three was a bigger number than two!"  
  
He sighed. "Let's start playing and I'll explain as we go."  
  
-five minutes later-  
  
"NO, Gomamon," shouted Joe, "a four and a five are NOT the same as a nine. If you don't have any doubles, then say pass!"  
  
"But I do have doubles, Joe!"  
  
"That's three cards, not two! You could only play in this round if you had, say, two nines."  
  
"But I do have two nines, Joe, four and five make nine, unless I've got my arithmetic wrong."  
  
Joe made a strangled noise in his throat, and turned a peculiar colour. Gomamon squeaked and said, "pass."  
  
It was Izzy's turn. He looked at the two fours that Sora had played with a serious expression.  
  
"Let me see," he muttered, "this is a matter of serious deliberation. I must think about this one."  
  
Everyone groaned loudly. He had said the same thing for his last three turns.  
  
"Mmm, let's see... perhaps I ought to save this card for later in the game... but then, Sora only has two cards left... mmm, it is imperitive that she not be allowed to win this round... let me think... no, that combination would be impossible... hmmm... well... pass."  
  
Everyone facefaulted. Tentomon peeked over Izzy's shoulder.  
  
"Izzy, you didn't even HAVE any cards you could have played. In fact, you don't even have any card higher than a seven."  
  
Everyone tried not to laugh, as Izzy blushed and glared at Tentomon.  
  
"Thanks for telling everybody! Look at your own cards, not mine!"  
  
Tentomon played two tens, and Tai played two kings.  
  
"We two kings of orient are, one in a taxi, one in a car," he sang.  
  
"That's THREE kings, Tai," said Sora, "the song's about three kings, not two."  
  
"Tai, do you have to sing something about every card you put down?" asked Joe.  
  
Tai shrugged impatiently. "Can anyone beat two kings? Well? Well?"  
  
Everyone eyed each other suspiciously, and then Joe put down two aces. Tai growled, annoyed at losing his chance of winning.  
  
"Hey!" protested Patamon, "it was our turn before you, Joe!"  
  
"Did you have any cards you could have put down?"  
  
TK and Patamon had a brief, hissed discussion, consulting each other and looking at their cards together.  
  
"No."  
  
Joe sweatdropped. "Then I win this round."  
  
"Not so fast!" crowed Biyomon, "beat this!"  
  
She slapped down a joker and a two. Joe's eyebrow twitched.  
  
"You win," he said, and started muttering darkly under his breath about how he could never win the game now that his one chance of winning a round had been so cruelly snatched from him.  
  
"Yay, we win!" cheered Biyomon, "we won, Sora! We make such a great team!"  
  
"We sure do, Biyomon," said Sora, grinning back at her.  
  
"Oh yeah, you guys are out! Alright!" said Joe, pumping his fist in the air, "well, since the rest of us keep playing right down to the last player, and Sora just got out, it means I get to start the next round! Hahahahaha!"  
  
"No you don't," said Izzy calmly, "in 'Warlords and Scumbags', if nobody can beat the winner's cards, the next turn is taken by whoever is sitting next to them, which in this case is Gomamon."  
  
Joe sulked. Gomamon took great enjoyment in wondering aloud which of his cards he would play, and wasn't it a nice break that he should get to take the next turn? He finally put down his four.  
  
"A four!" crowed Izzy, "I can actually BEAT that!" He slapped a five down with an air of triumph. Everyone tried to keep a straight face.  
  
Tentomon put down a seven, and Tai an eight.  
  
"I eight the sandbox," sang Tai, "I eiiiight the sandboooox."  
  
"Tai, your singing voice makes me glad we're not in a room with glass windows," said Sora.  
  
"Is it just me or does he know the STUPIDEST songs?" said Joe. Patamon and TK played a jack and Joe grumpily passed. The only one who could beat *that* was Tentomon, who got rid of his last card in the process.  
  
They continued playing, with Gomamon coming third, Tai fourth, TK and Patamon fifth, Joe sixth and Izzy seventh. Joe was about to explain what was to happen next when Mimi came racing back in with Palmon.  
  
"Oh, I feel much better now," she said, and settled herself down delicately in their circle. "What are we doing?"  
  
"Playing Warlords and Scumbags," said TK, "wanna play, Mimi?"  
  
"*Scumbags*?" repeated Mimi, wrinkling her nose, "no thanks, I'll pass! But I *would* like to play Go Fish!"  
  
Izzy groaned. "Mimi, that is the most childish, intelligence insulting card game that -"  
  
"Ooh yeah, Go Fish, that's way easier to understand!" agreed Patamon.  
  
"I love that game!" said TK.  
  
"I'm in!" said Tai.  
  
"Me too!" said Biyomon.  
  
Izzy groaned. "I'm not playing this. I'd rather play Hearts on my computer."  
  
Everyone rolled their eyes, except for Tentomon whose eyes were permanently stuck in the same position. He twitched his antennae instead.  
  
"Come on guys," said Joe, "Warlords and Scumbags is my favourite game, didn't you like it? You just learned how to -"  
  
"Go fish, go fish, go fish," chanted half the group.  
  
Joe looked unimpressed. "Trust Mimi to get what she wants. Of course, no-one ever does what I want to do, it's..."  
  
"Come on Joe! I don't know how to play this game but it sure sounds fun! And I reaaaally like the name of this game!"  
  
"You would, Gomamon..."  
  
Soon they were all playing. Except for Izzy, who was playing a rather  
violent-sounding video game on his computer. Their cheerful banter and play was occasionally interrupted by death screams, machine gun fire and explosions.  
  
"Tai, got any threes?"  
  
"Go fish."  
  
"Mimi, got any sixes?"  
  
"Not to give to YOU, Tai, you creepazoid!"  
  
"Stop saying that! Do you have any or not?"  
  
"Hmpf. Here."  
  
"Patamon, got any kings?"  
  
"No, but we have a president."  
  
"*blink*"  
  
"Go fish."  
  
"Joe, got any elevens?"  
  
"Uh... no..."  
  
"You're supposed to say go fish."  
  
"You'll be fishing for a while. How could you ask for elevens? This game is stupid. Why do I always have the most cards? Sora, got any twos?"  
  
"Go fish."  
  
"Figures..."  
  
"Gomamon, got any aces?"  
  
"Go fish."  
  
Suddenly the cave was full of fish. Everyone stared in alarm. It was the first time Gomamon had said the phrase "go fish", and everyone looked at him, bewildered.  
  
"Gomamon!" shouted Tentomon over the sound of dozens of flapping fish on the cave floor, "what's with all the fish, huh?"  
  
"Oh," said Gomamon, a little surprised, "didn't you guys know that 'go fish' was another name for my attack?"  
  
When he repeated those words, more fish appeared. Joe got a bulging vein. "You could have told us sooner!"  
  
"But Joe, I didn't know that playing go -"  
  
"Not another word!" yelled Joe hastily, clapping a hand over his partner's mouth. "Gomamon, you can't play this any more!"  
  
"But that's not fair! I like this game! I wanna keep plaaaaaaaying! Joooooe!"  
  
"Ugh," said Sora, "when Gomamon whines it's almost as annoying as when Mimi does!"  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"Let's just play another game," said Biyomon practically. The others agreed as they started to push the fish outside into the rain. When they sat back down, they heard a sputtering sound, and turned in surprise to the back of the cave.  
  
"It's so impossible to get any sleep around here," grumbled Matt, "what's the big idea with covering me with fish, huh?"  
  
He slowly got up and moved awkwardly - having had an uncomfortable doze more than a sleep - towards the others. Everyone started laughing. He had a fish stuck in his hair. Matt glared and tipped the fish onto the floor, where Gomamon caught it and threw it outside.  
  
"Alright, you've talked me into it," said Matt, still in a grumpy tone, "guess I might join you for a little while."  
  
"Alright," said Tai, happily.   
  
"Can we play Snap now?" asked TK, "pleeeease?"  
  
"Count me out," said 12 others. Izzy's response was to shout "just die already, it's logically impossible that you still be alive after being struck with so many bullets, so die! Die! AHAHAHAHA!"  
  
Everyone very slowly turned their heads towards Izzy, who had a semi-maniacal grin on his face, unaware of anything but the computer screen in front of him.  
  
"Uh oh. Izzy's flipped," said Mimi, and after a moment's thought, added, "again."  
  
"Digiworld to Izzy," called Tentomon, waving a claw in front of Izzy's face. Izzy ignored it completely, gritting his teeth and narrowing his eyebrows.  
  
"If I can just break through this wall..."  
  
Tentomon sighed. "You just can't talk to him when he gets like this..."  
  
"I know a way," suggested Tai, and simply snapped Izzy's laptop shut. Izzy squawked in outrage.  
  
"Tai! Tai! I was almost ready to challenge the evil dragon empress!"  
  
"Yes, Izzy," said Tai.  
  
"But I'd just found the tank! I was just about to -"  
  
"-join us for another hand of cards, right?"  
  
Izzy breathed heavily, squeezing his eyes shut, then shook his head once or twice. When he opened his eyes, his usual calm expression had returned.  
  
"It's a real shame we don't have another deck," said Izzy, "we could have played Canasta."  
  
Joe glanced at Tai, TK and Mimi. "Do you really think these guys could handle playing Canasta? I mean, Tai even has trouble understanding Snap."  
  
"I didn't have TROUBLE understanding!" snapped Tai, "I just got... confused."  
  
Matt snorted. "I remember that. We were playing back at summer camp. Sora chose Snap because she thought it was the only game Tai could handle."  
  
"That wasn't the reason," said Sora, sounding annoyed.  
  
"Well, I think Snap is right out," said Joe, "it was bad enough playing with you guys. You almost broke my hand. Just think what it would be like if 14 people and Digimon tried to slap their hands - or paws, or claws, or flippers, or wings, or whatever else - down on the cards at once. It's bad enough having Tai do that thing where he jumps up from his chair to yell "snap" and practically throws his whole body weight onto the cards and whoever's hands are on there already. I sure don't want Biyomon's claws impaling me, or Tentomon's 'hands' doing me permanent damage, or..."  
  
"Joe, nobody's listening to you again," said Gomamon.  
  
Joe sweatdropped. It seemed the others had lost interest in playing cards. TK and Patamon were trying to build a card tower. Mimi was brushing her hair. Tai and Sora were playing catch with TK's 'lucky stone'. Matt was trying to convince Izzy that he wouldn't break the computer if Izzy let him try whatever game he'd been playing.  
  
He sighed and leaned back against the wall. Then Tai tried to respond to Sora's throw by spiking the stone like a volleyball. The result was an upset Tai clutching his wrists and screaming in angry pain, and the stone falling to rest at Joe's feet. Joe picked it up and looked at it.  
  
"Go on, Joe," said Gomamon, "throw it!"  
  
So Joe did, and Sora tossed it back, and soon *they* were playing catch too.   
  
It was probably a good thing that stone was not very big, because over the course of the next half hour it hit darn near everyone in that cave, and soon they were all playing.  
  
'Catch' soon evolved into a game of Tai's devising - always a worry! - some sort of odd cross between lacrosse, basketball and rugby.  
  
"C'mon, Joe!" called Tai as he scooped up the rock in Sora's helmet. Matt tackled him and he threw the helmet through the air. Joe moved to catch it, tripped, and Sora - who was on the other team - caught it instead.  
  
"Joe!" complained Tai, "my grandmother can play better than you!"  
  
Sora snorted. "Tai, *your* grandmother can play better than any of us!"  
  
She ran, jiggling the helmet as she went so that the stone bounced up and down in it. Just then, Izzy ran in with TK's hat, catching the stone in midair to get it himself. He ran back downfield.  
  
Joe groaned to himself. "This is the stupidest game ever invented."  
  
"Hey, I invented it," said Tai, running to cover for Izzy.  
  
"Say no more," said Matt.  
  
"Hey, what was that?!" yelled Tai, and tackled him.  
  
"Hey, *I* didn't have the rock! That's against the rules! I - oh fine, eat rock!"  
  
The other players stopped and sweatdropped as Matt and Tai started wrestling again.  
  
"Oooh!" said TK, "let's play WWF!"  
  
Sora grinned. "Sounds fun to me!" She grunted theatrically and then dove at TK, although she was careful not to use all her strength. TK squealed with laughter and latched onto her leg, trying to pull her over.  
  
"Ew, I am not playing this game, I'll get all dirty again," said Mimi delicately, and sat down out of the way.  
  
"Me too. I'm sure they're going to break some bones or something. And then what'll we do? Out here in the middle of nowhere with no doctor and -" Joe was moving to sit down next to Mimi, when something flew at his stomach and bowled him over.  
  
"Oof," he wheezed, winded, "Izzy?! What's the idea?!"  
  
Izzy looked sheepish. "It wasn't my fault, *those* two -" he gestured at Gomamon and Tentomon "-pushed me."  
  
"Come on, you two, act like boys!" said Gomamon and Tentomon in enthusiastic unison.  
  
Izzy and Joe glanced at each other, and then, of one accord, each lunged at their respective Digimon.  
  
Mimi and Palmon sat side by side, Mimi examining her fingernails. "Palmon, do you ever feel like we're the only *normal* people here?"  
  
"Mimi, can't we join in?"  
  
Mimi sweatdropped. "Traitor."  
  
Patamon and TK were both flying at Sora, who was laughingly trying to fend them off, Izzy was jumping up to try to grab at Tentomon, who flew, infuriatingly, *just* out of the short boy's reach, Tai and Matt were a flying tangle of arms and legs, Agumon, Gabumon and Biyomon were shoving each other playfully. Joe ran past Mimi and Palmon, right on Gomamon's tail, just about to catch him.  
  
Mimi and Palmon grinned evilly. "Poison Ivy!" cried Palmon, tripping Joe up.  
  
"Hey!" he shouted.  
  
"Thanks, Palmon!" called Gomamon, laughing a lot.  
  
Joe was just standing up when he was knocked down again. He looked up into a mock-evil expression of Mimi's.  
  
"Mimi?!"  
  
TK skidded out of Sora's way and landed on the two of them. Mimi and Joe smirked at each other and started tickling him. Sora dove into the fray and the four kids' Digimon all came to TK's defense, targeting their partners. Soon everyone was involved in a huge tickle-fight.  
  
And chaos reigned.  
  
Suffice to say that by the end of their 'relaxing day', they all ended up far more battered and tired than in a day of hiking and battling Etemon. Yet none of them complained about that.  
  
(Well, if you want to be literal, Joe complained a little. And Mimi. And Izzy. And - oh, okay, most of them had something to say. Sue me.) 


End file.
